You are the place on earth that gave me the biggest pains in my life: a divorce, being mobbed, threatened and feeling fear and being unwanted. I had a severe surf injury on my right leg that took me more than a year to heal, and many other little injuries in my heart and body. The count is very long. But besides the many scars and wounds, I kept coming back mainly because of the surf, but also for some mysterious pull I still felt towards you. Also, i kept coming back because up to a few years ago, I owned a little house in Playa Negra. I could have sold it or just ignore it, but still - i was going back.. So from my first move to Costa Rica in 2002, I kept that place in my heart somehow.
A couple of years have passed, the wounds have healed, the scars are still there, I have a hole in my leg. They remind me of deep teachings and keep me awake. In the last two years though, things started to shift. I started to develop a profound bond with Playa Negra again. I feel your energy, black, destroying and yet constructive. Makes me think of Kali, black and bloody. Yet necessary to reconnect with nature and build up trust, love and peace.
In 2016, I was blessed to stay in Costa Rica over two months, I hosted my first yoga retreat there. It was amazing and I am still smiling of joy when I think of my group of yogis enjoying their time there. Years later, Playa Negra also made me (re)encounter with a very special person, that became later my husband!
When I think of all the events in my life that lead up to this, I can’t ignore the fact that everything came for a reason. So wow, Playa Negra, the black and painful beach, has become a big source of joy and love. As it should be, and I am deeply thankful to that.
There is a nice teaching in all that. Something I am also often asked by students when they struggle in their practice, be it yoga-asana or other practices. It takes a lot of time and pain is there for a reason. I once read that you are never given a struggle you won’t be able to overcome. It’s all teachings and blessings being put on our path to make us grow. Key is to stay with it, stay with the unpleasant. Trust your work, keep up the practice, and with patience let things unfold.
I needed your teachings of destruction and pain, to find ease, joy and love. AHO.
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